A Closer Examination of Family Group Decision Making inChild Placement

U.S. government eventually passed the Indian Child Welfare Act of
1978 (“ICWA”),131 recognizing a predominately tribal jurisdiction
over tribal child welfare cases.132 The Act mandates that state courts
act to preserve the integrity and unity of American Indian and Alaska
Native families, and promotes permanency for these children within
their tribal communities.133 ICWA established that whenever
possible, a Native American child should remain in the Native
American community, where preference should be given first and
foremost to placements with extended family, then to Native
American foster homes.134 In testimony before a House
subcommittee hearing, a tribal chief testified: “[c]ulturally, the
chances of Indian survival are significantly reduced if our children,
the only real means for the transmission of the tribal heritage, are to
be raised in non-Indian homes and denied exposure to the ways of
their People.”135 Essentially, courts view ICWA as a policy to
maintain tribal heritage and protect the integrity of American Indian
and Alaska Native families.136

Thus, in the American Indian and Alaska Native culture,
strong preference is given to the extended family and community to
boarding schools “where they would be civilized.” Horejsi et al., supra note 125, at
338.

136 Id. at 423. The effects of the practice of “snatching” Native children during the
‘boarding-school era’ resulted in what some refer to as “‘Split Feather Syndrome’ –
the damage caused by loss of tribal identity and growing up ‘different’ in an
inhospitable world.” Researchers have also referred to this as “Lost Bird”
syndrome. Stephanie Woodard, Native Americans Expose the Adoption Era and
Repair its Devastation, INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY MEDIA NETWORK Dec. 6, 2011),
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/article/native-americans-expose-the-
adoption-era-and-repair-its-devastation-65966.